Waking Up Alive
by socoangel
Summary: A damaged and desperate young woman finds herself brought into the center of a very strange family and in the middle of a world she didn't realize could exist. Approx. 5 years post BD.
1. Chapter 1

***I do not own any of the characters from the Twilight Saga series, those are the property strictly of Stephenie Meyers. All other characters are of my own creation.***

_**Waking Up Alive**_

_**by Socoangel**_

**A damaged and desperate young woman finds herself brought into the center of a very strange family and in the middle of a world she didn't realize could exist. Approx. 5 years post BD.**

**Aislynn, Seth, The Cullen Family, members of both Jacob & Sam's pack, various other characters of my own creation.**

**Rating: M (Based on mature content/themes and possibly some profanity.)**

**A.P.O.V.**

** "Now I will tell you, what I've done for you... fifty thousand tears Ive cried, screaming, deceiving, and bleeding for you...and you...still won't hear me. I'm going under." I could feel the bass reverberating within my skull and causing my pulse to once again increase in it's galloping pace. The tinted windows of the car shuddered slightly in their seating as the sound system did its work. I was fairly certain that the car had garnered a few baleful glances as I had passed through the dreary, grey and tan and brick speck on the map. Forks...hmm...I wonder if there is such a place as Spoons and Knives too? I had allowed the volume to remain at its current level since I had left the city limits of Seattle and had only barely followed the posted warnings about the speed limits down the mist draped roads of the Olympic Peninsula. This, of course, was predominantly because I did not want to draw any unwanted attention from law enforcement. No, they would find me soon enough, and I couldn't afford any delays. I had to be certain that I was on open road, preferably a smaller, less travelled one, surrounded by the dense forests of upper Washington state. I mentally counted to myself and figured I had approximately 5-10 minutes remaining until I would be unconcious from the last pills I had downed. This should work ok, I thought to myself as I thought back to the last time I had seen any fog lights on this stretch of highway since I had turned off a couple of miles back, searching for something secluded to avoid the possibility of traffic. The last thing I needed was someone else to be caught in my own cataclysmic end cycle and be injured or worse because of me. **

** My heart had already began struggling, alternating between the gallop that seemed in tune with the bass line and fading to near obscurity, slowing to the point that it almost stopped. The wretched thing was giving in to the cocktail, and would soon thankfully have done so completely. Each component had been chosen very specifically and I had been careful to crush the most important pills, ensuring that their absorption rate would be sped up enough to allow me to get to an area that was suitable for my purpose. There had been multiple equations involved and it had taken me months to get everything just so. I guess that was one of the pitfalls of having an obsessive compulsive personality...I couldn't just do something, I had to plan everything down to the bare bones details and also make several contingency plans in case the original should go awry. I could feel a fine sheen of sweat enveloping my body and reached to turn down the heat. There wouldn't be much reason for it to be on in just a few minutes anyhow, and the hot flash was one of those that was going to stick around for a little bit. I laughed to myself as the thought occurred to me that I was indeed an oddity and that at only 27 years of age, I should not have known what it felt like to have a hot flash. There were a lot of other things that I should not have experienced at my age, but yet here I was.**

** Just for your reference, my name is Aislynn Grafton and I am 27 years old. I grew up with a fairly normal upbringing in the South, North Carolina to be more specific, in a small town. I am the only child of Joseph & Claire Grafton, with my mother being third generation immigrant Irish and my father of Scottish, German, and Cherokee descent. Surprisingly, my parents remained married and very much in love throughout my lifetime, unlike the majority of my friends' parents. They stayed that way until the very end, which was 3 years ago today, when they were both killed in a horrific car accident caused by a hotshot teenager with a brand new sports car. He was driving at a high rate of speed down a heavily travelled road and decided to pass a log truck with a full load, who just happened to be coming up an incline that was just enough to prevent being able to see what was coming from the opposite direction until one was at the top of the incline. My parents were hit head on, throwing their SUV directly into the path of the log truck. Of course the truck jack-knifed in his attempt to stop and mitigate the consequences, as there were several other vehicles behind both him and my parents. There were two deaths, those of my parents, 3 people ended up in wheelchairs, and 4 others were injured, although thankfully they were mostly minor considering what could have been. The teen driver that caused the wreck was in a wheelchair for a while, but was eventually able to progress back to walking on his own. **

** So I was left to try and pick up what was left pretty much on my own. I had no aunts or uncles as both of my parents had been only children as well and my grandparents had all passed when I was between middle and high school. Don't get me wrong, my parents had many good friends and they all tried their best to help me in any way that they could, but about a year after the accident, I began to feel the need to escape. I'd never thought I would ever feel such a desperate pull to leave the house that I grew up in, my safe haven as I had always considered it. It held so many memories for me, mostly good, but also a few bad. It was where I had scraped my first car up against one of the immense pines when I hit a patch of ice trying to drive in reverse one day after an ice storm. It was where my mother had taught me to cook and my father had been the one blaring music on a regular basis throughout my upbringing. It was where I would collapse into bed after going to nursing school all day and then working at the hospital as a patient aide a full shift as well. I did manage to finish nursing school somehow despite my near constant exhaustion though, and got a job working in the pediatrics unit of the hospital. I loved my job, and although I couldn't understand why I was still so tired after only having to work a short eight hour shift, I was in love with my life at that point. **

** I had grown up with close friends, and tried to be friendly to most people, although I was not always extended the same courtesy. I was always made fun of by some and shunned by a few as well because I didn't fit their likeability profile I guess. You see, from the time that I was only several years old, I was the pale fat girl. Oh, I could have easily gotten a tan because of the Cherokee blood that still flowed through my veins, however I had always disliked the strange orangeish tinge and leathery texture that I observed in the skin of the women who were sun worshippers that I knew. And I did make quite a few attempts to lose weight, however none of them brought any lasting solution to my dilemma. So over time, I learned to accept myself as I was and also learned that anyone that didn't like me for me could just kiss off. Granted I wasn't so obese that it kept me from sitting in normal chairs or moving around as I pleased, but I was still slightly self concious about my appearance in general. I was average height, with auburn hair that was more often curly than straight, my eyes were mostly green with a strange gold colored ring right around my pupil, I had porcelain pale skin with an unfortunate dusting of freckles, and lips that sometimes almost seemed too full to me, that looked as though I always had lipstick on due to their color. In all actuality, I was pretty indifferent about my appearances and didn't really think about them all that much. I was most often preoccupied with other things, particularly since my parents had passed. **

** My mother had been the one to notice and encourage me to speak to my doctor about how exhausted I was all the time. I honestly attributed it to the fact that about a month earlier I had been very sick with the flu and had also been very stressed at the same time. I had been working in pediatrics for a couple of months at that point, and had to deal with losing a patient that had been on our unit since I came there. She was a dazzlingly beautiful two year old that always had a smile waiting for all of us, and she had brain cancer. I had found myself drawn to her every time I worked, and made a point of going by to check on her even when I was assigned to the other hall for work. To say her death affected us all greatly would be an understatement, and I went home that night feeling truly defeated, but I also knew that at last she was free from her pain, and the tubes and disease that kept her from blossoming here on earth. The next morning I awoke glad that I was not scheduled to work that day, because I felt horrible and remained in bed and out of work for another 4 days at which point I was at least finally able to force myself to get up and leave the house. I was able to work, but most often when I was at home, I could not find the energy to get off the couch or sometimes even out of bed. When I did sleep, however, it was often fitful and I blamed this for the fact that my muscles now almost constantly ached and burned, although it wasn't quite as intense as it had been when I had been sick. At my mother's urging, I finally scheduled an appointment on my day off with my doctor, and I never could have imagined the road it would lead me down.**

** My doctor seemed baffled by my symptoms, and didn't honestly seem to know in which direction to even start, until she was manipulating the muscles in my neck and back. As she applied the slightest pressure and I would flinch in pain, she remained quiet, only murmuring soft apologies for hurting me and moving on. She sat across from me, jotting a note down on my chart, seeming to hesitate before speaking. "Aislynn, I want you to see a specialist, a Rheumatologist, so that they can do some more specialized testing and rule out a few things, ok? I don't think you have any sort of arthritis, particularly at only twenty-three, but I want to be on the safe side, ok?" I agreed and left with the referral sheet and an appointment scheduled the following week. I didn't find myself particularly worried about my visit, and figured that it would help tell them what it wasn't so that they could then figure out what it was. The Rheumatologist's name was Dr. Watson, and she was a pleasant, no-nonsense sort of person who got right to business examining me, pressing on quite a few areas that were very tender strangely enough once again, even with the slightest touch. I also noted that it seemed the spots would be corresponding areas on both the right and left side of my neck and spine, as well as seemingly in other areas. She reviewed the lab results that had been sent in from my regular doctor, as well as the ones that her office had drawn earlier that week and had sent off and back in time for my appointment. She asked me a few more questions and after taking down some notes in my chart finally spoke, "Well Ms. Grafton, your lab work is clear, you do not have any sort of arthritis, but I do think you have Fibromyalgia. It is a chronic pain syndrome that affects mostly the soft tissues of the body, but can also have effects on memory, concentration, sleep patterns, and can also cause headaches, migraines, and visual disturbances. Unfortunately there is no known cause right now, so there is no cure, and it can be difficult to manage, so we may have to try several different medication combinations to find one that works for you best, but we will find one, ok?" I nodded quietly and didn't really say much throughout the remainder of the visit, taking the brochures that she had given me along with my prescriptions.**

** I then began a never-ending cycle of medication cocktails, some of which helped a little, but often found that the side effects were almost as bad or worse than what they were trying to treat. Pills of every color, for pain, muscle relaxers, sedatives, stimulants for when the effects of the others made me too sleepy to function, and about a month before my parent's accident, I was prescribed an anti-depressant. My mother was actually happy about that particular addition. She reasoned that anyone who had that much pain all the time was bound to feel depressed, and it made sense for a long time, even after they were gone. Since then, there had only been increases in my doseage of anti-depressant, and of course the anti-anxiety medication that attempted to keep my panic attacks at bay. I'd begun having them while planning the funerals, and they became worse when everything calmed and I was left to drive down the road the accident occurred on for the first time alone. **

** My pain was a constant companion, though varying in degrees, sometimes just a slight ache all over, and sometimes I felt as though I was burning all over. My muscles would spasm and overreact to sometimes the slightest touch, but somehow I managed to keep my job. That part was actually easier than I thought it would be, I simply reasoned to myself when I felt that way that the kids on the ward had much worse pain than I did and always had a genuine smile for me. I had accepted a job in Seattle and moved about six months ago, thinking that maybe the change in pace and constant movement around me would keep me from thinking about what I had experienced in the past few years. I threw myself into my work, often finding that I would get home, throw my keys down, and pass out on the sofa or sometimes make it to the bed. Most of the time, however, I slept in my work clothes because I didn't have the wherewithall to change into my pajamas. I really didn't have any friends in Seattle, only a couple that I maintained contact with back in North Carolina. There had been a couple at work who had tried to include me in activities with several of the staff from the pediatric floor, often when they would go out to the bar or night clubs to let off steam from our work. I would politely decline, saying that maybe I would feel up to going the next time, but that I was exhausted at the moment. Some of them would question me about where I moved there from and other details of my past, as well as many times asking if I had a boyfriend or had ever been married. On that front, I could honestly laugh at them. No, I had never been married, I deemed it an absurd concept for me and had felt so ever since my diagnosis. I would not inflict what I had to go through on someone else, I could not. Nor could I expect anyone to actually want to be with someone who was as much of a wreck as I was, especially since the accident. It was neither fair nor realistic.**

** To be honest, I think I could have dealt with never being married or having one of those lifelong relationships that so many women seek. Oh I believed in them certainly, but the part of my life that I had found missing and that I had always just assumed would be there at some point was a child. I had always been a caregiver of some sort or another, the mother hen when one of my friends or parents was sick, but it had apparently never been meant to be. I used the energy that I am almost certain would have been spent lamenting my lonely state to put as much and sometimes more than I really had to give of myself to the children in my care at work. This would prove, however, to be what would ultimately bring me to my current state of whatever I was. I couldn't really call it an existence and be honest with myself. Her name was Keely, and she was a four year old brought in by Child Protective Services of Seattle. Her mother had been reported as being missing from work for a couple of days, and when a coworker went by the home to see if everything was ok, she found the door locked and the car in the driveway. The only answer she got when she knocked was the cry of a child. She called the police immediately and when they responded, was horrified to be told after they broke in the door that Keely's mother was dead and the child almost so from injuries and dehydration. She had been shut up in her bedroom upstairs for over 48 hours while her mother lie dead in the kitchen, apparently beaten to death by an abusive ex-boyfriend. They could only assume that the attacker had turned his anger to Keely when she wouldn't stop crying for her mother. **

** She had been brought immediately to the hospital, and in the month that she was there, we had learned that her grandparents could not be located and that she had no aunts or uncles to contact so that she could have an adult with her in the hospital. We all fell instantly in love with the auburn ringlets that surrounded her angelic face and the bright baby blue eyes that seemed to shine even when she was in such fragile health and had been through so much. I personally was only barely able to refrain from losing it when I learned of the series of events that had brought her to us, not to mention the laundry list of injuries from those events. She had a broken arm, broken leg, black eye, multiple contusions all over her body, including a rather nasty looking bruised bump on the side of her head. Despite her injuries, she would smile when one of us stood next to her bed, grasping her stuffed cat closely. I was so glad that the police officer who had found her had noticed her trying to reach for the grey feline, and made certain to pack it away with her in the ambulance. The only fear she seemed to have was of men with facial hair, as evidenced by her screams of terror when one of the radiology technicians had come to get her for some test. She scrambled as much as she could with her injuries in any direction away from him that she could get, and he looked completely bewildered by her reaction until he was later told of her ordeal. We notified the detective investigating the attacks that there was a high likelihood that the assailant had facial hair and from then on monitored who went into her room carefully.**

** On the third day of her stay with us, she began suffering rather severe seizures and vomiting, which upon once again running brain scans we discovered that her brain was swelling. The neurologist that examined her did do emergency surgery that night to relieve the pressure and surmised from the location of the injuries that she had most likely been shaken violently, with her head slamming against something hard in the process. This further served to infuriate me to unreasonable levels whenever I thought of it, and I found that I soon began calling the lead detective, checking on the progress of the investigation at least twice a week. We all spent extra time with her, particularly during the times in which she was awake so that she would not be alone. Soon enough though, it was necessary to sedate her because of the increasing amount of swelling in her brain. We all soon found ourselves talking about her smile, how we missed it so, and her infectious giggle. She would erupt into fits of giggles whenever the doctor would run the tip of the reflex hammer up the middle of the sole of her foot, and she could be heard down at the nurses' station in her giggle fits. The silence after her sedation was palpable, and we all sat at one point or another, staring intently at her Intercranial Pressure level on the monitor at our desk, as if trying to mentally will it to decrease. I knew we were all thankful that in the last days she was sedated, despite missing her giggles, smile, bright eyes, and voice that sounded like bells chiming. It was simply better that way than to imagine her in any sort of pain, and during the last twenty-four hours I had often caught myself turning quickly, looking down the street or aisle of the drug store because I could have sworn I heard her voice or laughter. I liked to think maybe she was hanging around, waiting for one more glance at her angelic smile before I was led to whatever my fate held for me beyond my mortal shell. **

** She had passed away quietly two evenings prior, with four of us standing around her bedside, holding hands and trying to maintain our composure as her heart sped and slowed, over and over as it had been doing for the two hours previous to that. I had gotten off my shift right after this had begun and the doctor and two other nurses had joined me in my vigil shortly after. Strangely enough, her final breath had been drawn and at 6:49 pm the pronouncement had been made officially. I guess in my odd mindset it only made sense that I made mental note of the fact that her official time of death was the exact same time that had been proclaimed as both my parents time of death based on the fact that every clock in their SUV had stopped at that time. I thought this to be odd at first, but then decided it only seemed fitting since my world had officially stopped and changed forever more at that minute. Even their cell phones had stopped working at that time and remained set on it until they had been powered off. At any rate, I had assisted in removing her I.V.'s and all of the monitors, dressing her in a clean gown, and tucking her beloved stuffed cat under her tiny arm before drawing the sheet over her forever now peaceful, angelic face. Although I did leave the hospital afterwards, I couldn't bear to go home right then, and I found myself wandering until I reached a park that I had not previously even realized was there. I found myself drawn to the sound of water and eventually ended up sitting on a bench looking at a fountain with a sculpted angel as it's centerpiece. It was there that I allowed the deluge to overtake me, the sobs shaking me so violently that my muscles began to tremble and spasm in response.**

** I had known as I sat there, for how long I am still not even certain before I got up and walked back to the hospital parking deck. From there I drove home, beginning to finalize my plans in my head, of course planning contingencies as well, and I cannot say that I slept in the time between then and now, although I do think I dozed off for about an hour or so at one point. I cleaned my apartment spotlessly, cleaned out the fridge, bagged up all of my clothing with the exception of one day outfit and one set of comfortable yoga pants and shirt. During the daytime hours of the next day I took the bagged clothes to a shelter for abused women and children, as well as a sizable donation that was all of my savings, what was left from paying my monthly bills in advance, and the money I had gotten from selling the jewelry I owned except a couple of pieces. One was a gift from my parents, and the other was the ring we'd had made for my Mother with hers, my father's , and my birthstone for her birthday one year. I had also left detailed instructions in the letter that was now sitting in the passenger seat beside me as well as the copy of which was lying on my kitchen counter that the remainder of my belongings, which were mostly furniture, were to be taken as another donation to the women's shelter. The only request that I had made of the shelter was that they would use some of the money I had donated to buy toys and the needed items for a playroom at the shelter itself for the children of the women that escaped there. The additional point of that request was to have an angel statue placed somewhere in the room with a plaque dedicated in memory of Keely, her mother, and all others who had lost their lives to domestic violence.**

** My head snapped up as I realized that I had begun to doze in my recall of the events of the past couple of days. I looked around to see if there was anyone else on the stretch of road, with the tall forest on either side seeming to reach over and form an arch over the area that I was driving down. Good, I could see no other cars on the road, no headlights either coming or going as far as I could tell. If I was correct, I would soon be crossing the line onto the LaPush Indian Reservation, most of which was concentrated more towards the west and north, wheras I was approaching from the South and would hopefully not have much longer on my journey. My heart once again hammered against my chest wall as if in protest and the sides of my vision began dimming, as if caving in around me slightly. I shook my head and forced myself to focus, making sure no other vehicles were coming, glancing forward then side to side assuring no side roads were near. I thought I heard a strange noise and turned down the stereo for a moment, swearing I heard a howling noise. I once again did a side road sweep, startled to see something that seemed to be moving through the forest just far enough into it so that I could not make out what it was. Whatever it was, it seemed to be keeping pace with the car, and I consoled myself that it had to have been several mountain cats or large deer and I was just seeing them in a blur, as there was no possible way one could run that fast. I was driving nearly seventy miles per hour! I turned back up the stereo and felt my blood rushing through my veins as I pressed ever so slightly more on the accelerator, my vision dimming more from the sides and my heart hammering once again heavily. I then felt the lightness following it, almost the sensation one gets when they are fainting, as though all of the oxygen has been removed from the room at once and there is no gravity either. At this point, I tried to do a road sweep again and found that my vision had finally given in completely to the darkness. I could feel my hands slip from the wheel involuntarily, and my last thought was..."I think my foot just went heavier on the gas pedal, I didn't mean to do that. Oh, well. Please just don't let any cars be anywhere near me, please God protect them all from me." The darkness took over completely then, and there was no more concious thought.**


	2. Chapter 2

***I do not own any of the characters from the Twilight Saga series, those are the property strictly of Stephenie Meyers. All other characters are of my own creation.***

**Chapter 2**

**S.P.O.V.**

** I howled as I ran, full force down the side of the road now, my heart thundering in my ears. I felt as though I were chasing the hounds of hell themselves away, trying to keep them away from that small silver car as it bulleted its way down into the forest. With more fear than I had ever felt in my life coursing through me, I pushed myself harder, screaming in my head to my pack mates and verbalizing as much as I could to alert Sam's pack that I needed their help too. The curve was coming up closer, and I had seen her slump forward right before the car had accelerated, which did not bode well for either of us at this point. If the mysterious driver couldn't function enough to steer around the approaching curve, there was nothing that I could do, other than try to get some help there and hope I could pull her out before the car could have a chance to catch fire or explode. I was at least 20 yards behind the car now, and could hear the tires as they hit the gravel at the side of the road, bits being slung here and there as the car slowed ever so slightly. It was about 15 yards from the side of the wide slung curve to the treeline and the car had already travelled half of that distance as I found one last burst of adrenaline and leapt forward. I could hear Jacob and Leah's minds before I could hear their feet barrelling them towards me, with Jake urging me to calm down and telling me that Sam and the rest of the other pack were en route. I watched in horror as the car's front bumper made its horrendous contact with a huge pine tree that was at least 3 feet wide, shaking it to the very top as it plowed into it. My stomach heaved at the feeling of the vibration that emitted from the impact as it coursed through the earth under my feet. I could only stop in my tracks, standing where the back bumper of the car had just been and scream, howling my pain and heartbreak into the forest air as I listened to the car seem to ricochet back and forth between the first tree and a second. I had expected to hear the burst of air from the air bag in the steering wheel, but realized I had not heard any at all and turned my head just as Jacob and my sister Leah skidded to a halt on either side of me, watching the horrible truth of what was happening in front of us.**

** I realized that the noise had ceased and darted around to the front of the car before they could stop me from getting too close. I stood still for a moment and forced myself to phase, grabbing for my shorts as quickly as my hands could grasp them, struggling to yank them on before I tried to find a way into the car and to her. I ran around what used to be the front end of it to the driver's door, seeing that it thankfully had not been smashed all the way in. I grabbed the door handle and yanked, pulling with all my might, only to find that I couldn't budge it, and began inspecting the windows and windhield for any points of entry. I thought about trying to bash in the windshield or driver's window, but was afraid I might injure her further. Jake appeared beside me skin-clad and we looked at each other, nodding and grasping the edges of the door frame that were now protruding slightly and pulling with all our might. I could hear the metal cringe against itself as it moved slightly and then stopped and I groaned to myself, fighting the urge to haul off and plunge my fist into the side of the driver's window. I noticed Jake cock his head to the side slightly and sniff, then call out "Bells, Edward! Over here!" The two appeared within seconds beside us from down the hill that was just a ways back and started asking questions. I however, was in no state for playing twenty questions and had to hope I had relayed enough to Jake for him to make sense of it to Edward and his wife Bella, because I certainly couldn't be counted on to be helpful. At that moment I felt as though my head was unraveling into a pile before me, taking my heart along with it. I vaguely heard bits of the conversation as Edward quickly gave Bella a rundown as he had heard it from Jacob's mind. "Seth was running a patrol when he saw this car driving erratically and was following it to make sure the driver was ok. He saw her through the windshield and realized what she was, then he also realized that something was wrong with her. He doesn't know if she passed out or what, but he couldn't stop it so he called an alert. Apparently none of the air bags have went off that they have heard, and they can't get the door out of the way even between the two of them to get her out." He jerked his head towards Leah, nodding sharply and inhaling quickly. "There must be a gas leak somewhere, Leah just mentioned it, we need to get her out of there fast!" The rest of us sniffed and crinkled our noses against the acrid smell of the gasoline and other fluids that had begun to leak from beneath the vehicle.**

** Bella and Edward looked at each other quickly, nodded in their silent communication bubble as I called it, and came forward to both grasp the top of the door as Jake and I had, while Jake grabbed the bottom edge. His command to move as soon as it was out of the way to get her out most likely only touched my brain because it was technically a command from my alpha. They all pulled, eliciting a horrid screeching as the door began to gave way against its will. The door was slung to the side and I was instantly at her side, and found myself actually ripping the seatbelt completely out of its housing and away from around her body. I held my breath, listening for any noise coming from her, but found the stereo's erratic off and on annoying so I reached in, bashing the unit with my fist, silencing it once and for all. I heard no heartbeat, no breathing, nothing, and panic began to overtake my mind once again. Edward came to stand next to me and reached forward, feeling and listening for her pulse and evaluating for major injuries. Her porcelain skin was already bruising and bloody all across her face from a rather nasty looking knot on her forehead which I assumed was from hitting the steering wheel. She was leaned over to her right side at an odd angle while her head was tilted towards us on her left, and I noted that her left thigh bone was obviously broken, protruding through her jeans leg and bringing with it a small but increasing stain of blood on the denim. He turned to Bella, saying "We have to get her out of this car and to help fast...she won't hold on much longer...call Carlisle, my love?" She nodded and walked a couple of feet away, flipping her cell phone open, dialing and began speaking to him in less than a minute.**

** I reached in as carefully as I could and attempted to get a proper hold under her knees and shoulders, hoping that she was unconcious enough that she wouldn't feel the pain that I knew her body must be experiencing from her injuries. I pulled her out as quickly yet as gingerly as I could and held her against my chest, moving over to where Bella was laying a quilt on the ground a little ways from the car. Edward was beside me then, beginning to go over her injuries while Jacob had set about disconnecting the gas line and such to prevent the car from exploding. Once he was finished with the primary lines, he instructed my sister to phase and begin looking for any clues she could find in the car. He needed to phase back for a moment and get a fix on where Sam and his pack were located at the moment and let them know what was going on. I finally took a moment to breathe and then looked down at the face of the angel lying on the blanket, wondering if I was meant to lose her just as quickly as I had found her? Surely there was something that could be done, lots of people survived car wrecks that were worse than that didn't they? I could deal with whatever injuries she might have, if she needed, I could carry her, take care of her, feed her, anything that she needed. But she had to survive, she just had to!I dropped to my knees beside her, grasping her hand as Edward and Bella worked over her trying to stabilize her neck and the leg that was injured. My brain was so out of sync that I realized that Bella had called Carlisle, not the ambulance and immediately I began asking questions rapid-fire. "Why didn't you call an ambulance? Is Carlisle on his way? What's wrong with her? Shouldn't we call 911 so they can come get her?" Bella looked up at me and smiled softly, trying to calm me. "Seth, unfortunately there's no way that she would make it to the hospital in the condition she's in, Carlisle may be the only shot we have at saving her. But he is on his way as we speak, and had actually left the house right after we did in case we needed him." she looked at my face and turned back to Edward, then began muttering about a scent. "What do you mean love?" Edward asked. "Something doesn't smell right I mean...her blood. It isn't clean...could she have been drugged?" He leaned forward, smelling the skin of her forehead, near the angry bruising and laceration and said. "I think you're right, but I can't isolate one drug, it's like there are quite a few in her system. " Just then, his head jerked slightly to the right and he nodded, saying that Carlisle was within range of his mind reading ability. Good, I thought to myself...the quicker he gets here, the better.**

** Carlisle's actually appeared coming around the slight curve in the Cullen's rather large SUV, with his wife Esme in the passenger seat. They slowed to stop, both slipping gracefully out of the vehicle at the same time and in mere seconds were standing beside us. Edward began giving them the same rundown he had given Bella, adding the information he had already ascertained about her injuries and Bella's suspicions about the contents of her blood. Carlisle kneeled down beside her and began assessing her injuries, beginning with her head injury. He leaned closely to her cheek and smelled the blood that was continuing to stream down her face, then pulled back and nodded, saying, "Yes, there are definitely more than a couple of drugs in her system, although I cannot pinpoint exactly what they all are right now, that will require testing. As far as the rest of her injuries, she needs to be brought to the house immediately, Alice is preparing the clean room right now, but we need to hurry, her pulse is extremely slow and faltering." At this I felt the panic rising in my throat again and I began begging him, "Please, Doc, you have to do something, we can't let her die, PLEASE!" He simply nodded at me and began instructing Edward which supplies to bring from the back of the SUV as well as asking a couple of Sam's pack members to bring the stretcher that was in it as well so that they could load her up. I hadn't even noticed their arrival as my attention was glued to the image with the auburn curls lying before me. Esme came around and stood at my shoulder, extending her cool hand to rest on my other shoulder, patting me in a motherly fashion and I instinctively leaned my head against her waist. She had truly become a motherly figure in my life as well as to many of the other pack members of Sam's pack as well as Jacob and yes, even my sister Leah had allowed her to treat her as though she were one of her own. Our mother was still alive thankfully, but we had lost our father about 6 years or so ago, and since we were both now grown, she had remarried last year. We still saw her and our stepfather, Charlie, on a regular basis, but I personally had always liked Esme immensely. So it just seemed natural since our small pack was actually now based on the Cullen property and we often interacted with them moreso than anyone else that she would be a mother figure to us in addition to her own clan. I did sometimes find it amusing though, considering her human life had ended when she was only in her mid twenties, that she in no way looked like the mother of six adopted teens, much less the members of the two wolf packs that frequently crowded her kitchen. **

** I looked back down at my injured angel, and found myself wondering what her name was, how old she was, where she was from, what her life was like, and also whether I would get to find anything out more than just her name and age. She looked to be in her early twenties maybe, if that, because of her perfect porcelain skin and full features. She looked to only be about my step-sister Bella's height, but was not petite in her frame, rather she was beautifully curvy. While some guys may have looked at her as too heavyset, I found her voluptuous features attractive. From her full, pouty lips that looked like they were berry stained, to the swell of her breasts and the contrast of her small waist to her curvy hips and thighs, she was completely perfect. I myself had just turned twenty, though I looked to be about five years older because of our accelerated growth process as members of the pack. My heart felt as though someone had it in a vice grip and was squeezing it unmercilessly, as did my stomach. My mind was spinning so that I didn't even hear my sister's words as she walked over from the wreckage with something in her hands. I didn't register her presence until I felt her warm hand beside Esme's much cooler one on my shoulder. I looked up at her, wrenching my eyes away from the preparations that Carlisle and Edward were making to move her and get her back to the Cullen home so that she could be evaluated further. Leah looked down and tried not to let me see her flinch when she took in the injuries before her, but still it was there and then she was looking at me intently. "Her name is Aislynn Grafton, she just turned 27, actually you both have the same birthdate, and her address is one in Seattle. It looks like she must have just moved there not long ago though, because the id is fairly new and there's also a driver's license from North Carolina from a few years ago. Her blood type is O positive, Carlisle, and you should look at her purse...there are several bottles of medication in there." He looked up at her, processing the information quickly and nodded to her, "Ok, thank you for the information, Leah, make sure you give Esme her purse with everything in it so that I can look through the meds when we get back. Was there anything else you found of interest?" **

** My sister looked first to me, then down at her feet, shuffling them slightly before answering, "Well, Jake says that apparently all of the air bags in the car were disconnected and it looks intentional. Otherwise no, the only other things we could find are a bag with one change of clothes, a half-empty bottle of water, and the registration in the glove compartment." I noted that she refused to look me directly in the eyes now, as though she knew the connections my mind was now forming and didn't want to show any emotion about what had happened to avoid fueling the fire. My mind spun around her words and what we knew at this point, and my rage began to overtake me. She had been drugged, her airbags disabled, racing like her life depended on it away from Seattle and towards the Canadian border, which wasn't a very long drive from where we stood. What, or who, was she running from? Not only that, but why were they so determined that she not have functional airbags in the car to protect her should she wreck in her drugged state? That's when it dawned on me...they wanted her dead, so they had disabled the air bag system and drugged her so that when she tried to escape, she would only be able to make it so far before wrecking. I could feel my body trembling, the rage boiling in my veins as the transformation caused the air around me to shimmer slightly in expectation of what was about to happen. Suddenly I heard Jacob's words, warning Leah to step back and me to calm down before I hurt somebody. My mind battled to overcome my rage and stay in control as well as to follow my alpha's order. Finally I could feel the trembling begin to subside and my skin no longer itched as it did in the moments before I phased. I was still beyond angry, but knew that me phasing right now would serve no purpose other than raising the opportunity for me to risk injuring someone.**

** Carlisle stood, nodding his head at my former pack-mates and watching as they lifted the stretcher up and began to head towards the back of the SUV. It stood with it's back doors open, and the longer than usual stretcher slid easily into the tracks that had been custom designed for it. We had all hoped that the newly acquired and customized vehicle would not be needed for a while, but it seems that within only a month of it being completed, it would serve it's first duty. Things had indeed changed greatly in the last five years, and although things were still tense at times between the Cullens and the LaPush Tribe, the new treaty that had been formed ensured that peace was the highest concern in any matter. Because of the non-aging state of the Cullen's features, all of the adopted members of the clan were supposedly away at college while Esme and Carlisle remained in Forks. It was somewhat easier for them to get by with hanging around longer because they had both been slightly older when they were changed, as well as the fact that advances in available cosmetic products made it now feasible for Alice to add small laugh lines and such to Carlisle in particular. He was still working as the Chief of Medicine at the hospital, so his appearance had to change slightly every so often in a gradual manner of course. Alice took to the new task with her usual vigor, and after taking some private classes with one of Hollywood's top makeup artists on how to use her products, she could now easily make Carlisle and Esme appear to be more age-appropriate when need be. Esme didn't require it often though, as most of her charity work was done from home and anonymously at that. The only exception was when she occasionally would go into town or to the hospital and its various fundraisers and functions. Rosalie and Emmett were home about half of the time in the last year or so and spent the remainder of their time away in various locations vacationing. **

** Alice and Jasper did stay here mostly with her working in her "lab" where she now produced handmade all-natural cosmetics that she then sold through various boutiques, and websites, as well as her own site. Jasper spent the majority of his time lately actually assisting some of the tribe elders in recording their history in both written and verbal form, and had become quite the cinematographer as he made documentaries about the tribe's history. After having prepared for battle alongside us in the past he had developed a deeper respect for our nation and our storis, and had actually been asked by other tribes across the country if he would help them memorialize their pasts in the same manner. The documentaries were used in the schools on the reservation to help teach our heritage, and there were also some of them now being used in the schools surrounding the reservation to help promote respect and understanding of our culture. He had also rather unbelievably become very good friends with both Jacob and Sam and we often all had "sparring" matches to keep ourselves in form as we would erratically run across Nomads moving through our protected territory. One of my favorite things was actually to sit and assist him with his genealogical work, as he had started that back up a couple of years ago, going both backwards and forwards with the lines of the various Cullens, and also backwards in the cases of a few of the pack members who requested.**

** Edward, Bella, and their daughter Renesmee still lived in their cottage on the Cullen property, only occasionally taking vacations. Edward's primary passion over the last 5 years had been the education of their daughter, and he taught her everything from history, math, science, and literature, to music, foreign languages, and dancing. She also had received training in mechanics from Rosalie, fighting from her uncles Emmett and Jasper, art and design from Alice and Esme, cooking from Bella and my mother Sue, and had a good deal of medical knowledge from both her father as well as her grandfather Carlisle. Then of course was the issue of spoiling, of which we were all extremely guilty, but particularly so were her grandfather Charlie and Jacob of course. That man simply could not say no to her unless it directly endangered her in some way, and she knew it. That is not to say that she behaved in a spoiled manner at all, she was very well behaved, very sweet as well as compassionate, and very loving. The girl was, however, just as obstinate as her mother had ever thought of being and when her mind was made up, you might as well give up, because she would always win. Being a hybrid as she was, she did grow at an extraordinary rate, and at just over five years old in actual time, she much rather resembled a twelve or thirteen year old at this point. They suspected that by the actual age of seven she would be physically closest to age eighteen, judging by the way her growth had played itself out and her growth spurts had affected her. She was much more intelligent and worldly than any thirteen year old however, and had a huge thirst for knowledge that delighted everyone, and apparently had the ability to enchant anyone with one of her smiles. This was of course, in addition to her ability to use skin to skin touch to project whatever she wished into your mind, be it a memory, thought, or wish. Her mother and my now step-sister Bella spent a great deal of time with her, as well as working with Alice on her own all-natural products that were more body products such as bath salts, lotions, oils, sugar scrubs and such. The only time the three of them went into town anymore of course, was to visit with my mother Sue and now stepfather Charlie, who was Bella's father. They always went at night though, to avoid anyone's notice, and alternated with Charlie and my mom's visits to their cottage or occasionally the main house for parties and such with the whole extended family. If they needed to do shopping, they often traveled to Seattle or sometimes even to Canada, especially when Alice was involved.**

** As part of the new treaty, Carlisle had become the primary doctor for any members of either pack, since we could not exactly go to the hospital or normal physician's office with our constant high body temperature and rapid healing rate. There had also been occasions when one of us had been injured that we were not able to return to human form immediately, so he would either go to the reservation to a special clinic he had funded that was actually a full service emergency room/clinic with a seperate hidden entrance should one of the pack need attention while fur-clad. Or he would bring the injured party to their home, in which he had built a "clean room" which was basically along the same lines as the emergency room on the rez, fully equipped with an x-ray machine, lab, and sterile room should any surgery be required. He even staffed the clinic on the rez with a full time and on call doctor who was of Native American descent herself, and three nurses as well as a secretary and paid their salaries himself. He first approached the elders of the tribe with the idea not long after the incident with the Volturi shortly after Renesmee's birth and Bella's transformation, saying that he was forever indebted to the tribe for the willingness of the pack to stand with them against the formidable front the Volturi presented. He would not take no for an answer, however once he got things up and running, he turned the management of the clinic over to Emily, Sam's then fiancee and now wife and the mother of their twins, age two. She indeed loved her work and happily even acted as the go-between for the doctor and the medicine woman who had previously taken care of all of the minor ailments of the tribes residents. Embry's grandmother was old and took up the task of training one of the young nurses in the old ways of healing, and so it was incorporated into the daily goings on at the clinic. The customized SUV had been a product of his work with us, as he felt we would need something more low profile than a standard ambulance, and also something that was capable of working in four wheel drive during the sometimes inclement weather of the Olympic Peninsula. It had been customized with all the standard ambulance equipment in the back, and I had personally helped Emmett and Jacob place the tracks in the floorboard of the back for the stretcher to slide into. Even the stretcher was customized as it was longer than the standard version because most of us were at least six foot and three inches with the exception of my sister. Jacob himself was the tallest, standing over six foot six inches tall when he finally topped out. We weren't certain why Leah had remained her previous height of five foot seven inches, but she didn't develop nearly as much bulky muscle mass as the rest of us had either, she was very strong and toned, but was also definitely still very much a female in shape.**

** My mind snapped back to attention when Carlisle spoke as I stared vacantly at the big black Suburban with the tinted windows and the back doors now shut. "Ok, Edward, I'll need you to drive while Bella and I start working in the back, Esme, dear if you would call Alice and make sure they are ready and know we are coming? Sam, Emmett will be coming out with the tow truck to get the car, would you please stay here with it and help him load it up so we can get it back to the house. We need to see if we can find any other information about this young lady in there once it has been "uncrumpled" so to speak. And can you please have someone try to clean up that area around the site so that it's not so obvious that there was an accident here? Someone will notify you all as soon as we know anything, of course." Sam nodded at him and a couple of his pack members began picking up pieces of plastic, metal and glass that had been removed from the car during the accident and tossed about. Embry came over to me, putting his hand on my shoulder and gripping, saying "If you need anything Seth, just let us know man, ok?" I nodded mutely as I watched Carlisle and Bella climb into the vehicle from the side door, with Jacob banging on the back door to let Edward know everything was secured. The engine rumbled back to life and they turned around, headed back towards the entrance to the Cullen property, which was a couple of miles back. Jacob and Leah both stood over near the blanket she had been placed on, and I looked down, noticing the various bloodstains from her multiple cuts and abrasions, as well as the one from where her head wound had bled, sending a crimson stain blooming where her head had been lying. My sister stepped forward, reaching out to grab my hand, but I spun around, taking off and phasing mid-leap, shredding my shorts in the process. "Just let him go, Leah, he needs to deal with it in his own way, we will meet up with them at the house in a bit. Let's get the rest of this cleaned up, help Sam and the guys finish up, then we can leave as soon as Emmett gets here." I heard Jacob trying to reason with her as my feet dug into the soft dirt of the forest and I forced myself to keep going, even though I had no idea what was going to happen when I made it to the house. The further the SUV got from me, the more I felt my heart being ripped from its place, and although I tried to think positively that she would be fine once Carlisle got her stabilized, in some ways I wanted to just stop in my tracks and curl up into a ball and lie there, howling my pain to the full moon that was starting to take its place in the evening sky. Aislynn, her name was Aislynn...and her hair was auburn, and her license said she had green eyes. I found myself wondering if I would ever get the chance to find out what shade of green they were exactly, and if I would ever get the chance to tell her how much she meant to me, even though we had never spoken a word to each other and she had never seen me. I had to hope that I would have that chance, and I think that was the only thing that kept me on my feet at that moment, running as fast as my four feet would take me to the Cullen house and my imprint, Aislynn Grafton.**


End file.
